1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed towards a detachable sheet segment construction and more particularly to an overlap paper sheet segment construction such as for a check and check stub construction.
2. Background Art
Prior art paper product sheet segment constructions have been formed with a permanent adhesive applied to a portion of one sheet for permanently adhering that sheet to another sheet. Such permanent adhesives are well known for their substantial strength and frequently the paper must be torn before the adhesively-secured paper portions may be separated. Such permanent adhesives are also known to leave a residue on both of the joined sheets.
Many similar paper products have been formed with perforations effectively dividing a single sheet into two sheet segments which may be separated by tearing the sheet along the perforations. One application of such a paper product is a conventional checkbook wherein a plurality of perforated sheets are stacked and bound together by the first sheet segment and the second sheet segments are shingled therefrom. The second sheet segments are printed checks which can be removed from the first sheet segment or check stub by tearing along the perforations.
Some paper products have attempted to combine the aforementioned perforated structure with the aforementioned permanent adhesive. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,332 to Snedeker discloses a check and stub construction with the check and stubs separated by perforations and assembled into a checkbook Permanent adhesive surfaces protected by removable coverings are disposed along certain edges of checks and checkbook stubs to facilitate permanently reattaching the checks to each other and their corresponding stubs after use.
The structure disclosed in Snedeker has several problems. First, it is well known that once checks are removed from a checkbook they must be processed and handled through automated check reading/sorting machines at financial institutions. Should the removable covering protecting the adhesive surface become detached during this processing the adhesive may adhere to either the processing machinery or other checks and thus interfere with the automated check reading/sorting systems. Second, because of the difficulty of tearing the checks along the perforations it is common for the check or stub to be accidentally torn or for portions of the stub to remain on the check. Tearing of the check, or stub in pieces not removed from the check, can interfere with automated check reading/sorting machines. Third, the permanent nature of the adhesive of Snedeker means that once a check is returned to the checkbook and adhered thereto, it cannot be removed from the checkbook without tearing either the check or the stub. Fourth, applying the permanent adhesive and the removable covering to the checks and the stubs of Snedeker is time consuming and costly. Finally, when using the Snedeker structure both stubs and the checks must be made of heavy paper stock conforming to American Banking Association's standards, notwithstanding the fact that the stub does not need to be made of such a heavy weight and expensive paper.
In more recent years, repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesives have been developed In one application, a repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesive is applied to individual sheets at one end thereof, with the sheets or notes provided in pad form of overlapping shingled sheets and held together solely by repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesive strip. The individual sheets may be removed from the underlying sheet and the removed sheet repositioned with the repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesive adhered to another surface. Removal of the original sheets results in no tearing of either the sheet removed or the underlying sheet and none of the repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesive adheres to the surface upon which the sheet containing the adhesive is attached. Such structures are unsuitable for business form applications such checkbooks, however, because each sheet has the repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesive thereon and the adhesive would interfere with automated check reading/sorting equipment.
One modification of the above-described padded structure using a repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesive includes perforations dividing the portion of the sheet having the repeatedly releasable self-stick adhesive strip from the remainder of the sheet. Using this structure the adhesive portion of the sheet can be removed along the perforations to prevent its fouling sorting equipment. However, this structure requires that the entire sheet, including the stub, be constructed of the same type of paper. In addition, tearing along the perforated portion often results in tearing the stub or remaining portion of the sheet.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.